Low impact snapshot database protection in a micro-service environment

ABSTRACT

An implementation of the disclosure provides a system for generating low impact snapshots comprising a memory to store application data and a processing device coupled to the memory. The processing device is to identify a plurality of transactions within a cloud computing environment. Each of the transactions comprising an operation associated with a storage device of the cloud computing environment. A transaction queue that is storing identifiers of high and low priority database operations to be performed by an application on the storage device is monitored. (Currently amended) The monitoring indicates how many transactions are currently being processed. A snapshot policy that stores conditions in which a snapshot can be generated without adversely impacting performance of the storage device is evaluated based on the monitored transaction queue. In view of the evaluating, a point-in-time snapshot is generated which includes at least part of the storage device comprising state information for the application.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure is generally related to generally to computinginfrastructures and, more specifically, relate to low impact snapshotdatabase protection in a micro-service environment.

BACKGROUND

Employing micro-services allows breaking down complex softwareapplications into relatively simple independent processes, thusproducing highly decoupled systems. Each system may include multipleapplications that are hosted on a provider's infrastructure. Eachprocess associated with the services is focusing on doing a relativelysimple task to support the applications for each individual costumer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure is illustrated by way of examples, and not by way oflimitation, and may be more fully understood with references to thefollowing detailed description when considered in connection with thefigures, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network architecture in whichimplementations of the disclosure may operate.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of system for providing low impact snapshotdatabase protection according to an implementation of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an apparatus including a memory forproviding low impact snapshot database protection according to animplementation of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram illustrating a method for providinglow impact snapshot database protection according to an implementationof the disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram illustrating another method forproviding low impact snapshot database protection according to animplementation of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram illustrating a computer system inwhich implementations of the disclosure may be used.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A micro-service is an independently-deployable modular service thatcommunicates with other services in a system (e.g., a cloud-basedsystem) through a lightweight interface. These micro-services may beexecuted in containers to create containerized applications. A“container” herein shall refer to an interface between a host machineand a software application. The software application may comprise one ormore related processes and may provide a certain service (e.g., an HTTPserver, a database server, etc.). Containerization is anoperating-system-level virtualization environment of a host machine thatprovides a way to isolate the micro-service processes. At the same time,employing the containers makes it possible to develop and deploy newcloud-based micro-services in a cloud system.

Some micro-service systems support multi-tier architectures. Forexample, in a micro-service system, there may be a frontend tier thathandles application requests (e.g., Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)requests), a middleware tier that provides services for integration anddeployment of applications and monitoring of application flows andrelated data, and a storage tier that is provisioned from a backendstorage device. Each tier may be implemented using one or morecontainers. For example, the frontend tier may run multiple HTTPinstance containers, the middleware tier may run multiple middlewareservices containers, and the storage tier may run multiple databasecontainers that store database tables on persistent storage associatedwith the storage device. Each container associated with the tiers can bestopped and restarted without introducing service disruption. If,however, a database associated with the storage tier is stopped, thesystem must ensure that data associated with the database isconsistently persisted. Otherwise data corruption or data loss canoccur.

In some situations, the system may execute a snapshot to preserve dataconsistency. To take the snapshot, the system may freeze the database sothat no queries or updates can be executed against the database duringthe snapshot taking operation. Upon freezing the database, the systemstores data (which may be a full or partial database image, incrementaldelta of the image, etc.) into the storage device. Once the data isstored, a snapshot command may be executed by the system on the storagedevice to generate a point-in-time snapshot of a current state of thedatabase. In that regard, the quality of service of the system can beadversely impacted at snapshot time because of the freezing of thedatabases. For example, if the database accumulated a large amount ofchanges, taking the snapshot can take significant amount of time thatcan cause certain processes to timeout or expire.

Implementations of the disclosure provide for low impact snapshots ofdatabase in a micro-service environment. The micro-service environmentmay execute a snapshot controller to provide database snapshots as acloud-wide service available to any cloud tenant. In this regard, thesnapshot controller can issue snapshot commands that are dispatched tothe storage devices associate with the database. To issue the snapshots,the snapshot controller analyzes certain transaction informationassociated with the system. For example, the snapshot controllermonitors point-in-time a transaction depth of the transaction queue inthe middleware tier. The transaction depth indicates how manytransactions are currently being processed by the middleware. Thesnapshot controller can also determine a priority level for transactionsin the queue (which may include high or low priority operationsassociated with the transactions), as well as probe the database todetermine how many transactions from the queue have been processed sincethe last snapshot has been taken.

Based on this transaction information, the snapshot controller maygenerate a schedule for issuing the snapshot commands using a pluralityof snapshot policies. The snapshot policy may be a data structure (e.g.,a database table) that stores conditions in which the system maygenerate the snapshot without adversely impacting system performance. Inone example snapshot policy, a snapshot generating operation may bescheduled to start when the queue depth is below a certain level. Anadvantage of this policy is that it protects the database from freezingwhen there are a high number of transactions being processed. In anotherexample snapshot policy, a snapshot generating operation may bescheduled to start when the number of transactions since last snapshotis less than a certain number. One advantage of this it that it ensuresthere are no bounded transactions (e.g., transactions associated withthe same database lock) left unexecuted between snapshot windows. In yetanother example snapshot policy, a snapshot generating operation may bescheduled to start when there are no high priority operations in thetransaction queue. This policy ensures that high priority operations(e.g., operations from certain privileged users or admins) are notblocked by a snapshot. Still further, other snapshot policies arepossible to ensure that any scheduled snapshot causes a minimal amountof performance impact or service disruption while allowing a high dataavailability of services in the micro-service system.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network architecture 100 in whichimplementations of the disclosure may operate. In some implementations,the network architecture 100 may be used in a Platform-as-a-Service(PaaS) system, such as OpenShift®. The PaaS system provides resourcesand services (e.g., micro-services) for the development and execution ofapplications owned or managed by multiple users. A PaaS system providesa platform and environment that allow users to build applications andservices in a clustered compute environment (the “cloud”) Althoughimplementations of the disclosure are described in accordance with acertain type of system, this should not be considered as limiting thescope or usefulness of the features of the disclosure. For example, thefeatures and techniques described herein can be used with other types ofmulti-tenant systems.

As shown in FIG. 1, the network architecture 100 includes a cloudcomputing environment 130 (also referred to herein as a cloud) thatincludes nodes 111, 112, 121, 122 to execute applications and/orprocesses associated with the applications. In some implementations,these nodes may be virtual machines (VMs) that are hosted on a physicalmachine, such as host machine 1 110 through host machine N 120,implemented as part of the cloud 130. In some implementations, the hostmachines 110, 120 are located in a data center. For example, nodes 111and 112 are hosted on physical machine 110 in cloud 130 provided bycloud provider 104. When nodes 111, 112, 121, 122 are implemented asVMs, they may be executed by OSs 115, 125 on each host machine 110, 120.

Users can interact with applications executing on the cloud-based nodes111, 112, 121, 122 using client computer systems, such as clients 160,170 and 180, via corresponding web browser applications 161, 171 and181. In other implementations, the applications may be hosted directlyon host machines 1 through N 110, 120 without the use of VMs (e.g., a“bare metal” implementation), and in such an implementation, the hostmachines themselves are referred to as “nodes”.

Clients 160, 170, and 180 are connected to host machines 110, 120 incloud 130 and the cloud provider system 104 via a network 102, which maybe a private network (e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide areanetwork (WAN), intranet, or other similar private networks) or a publicnetwork (e.g., the Internet). Each client 160, 170, 180 may be a mobiledevice, a PDA, a laptop, a desktop computer, a tablet computing device,a server device, or any other computing device. Each host machine 110,120 may be a server computer system, a desktop computer or any othercomputing device. The cloud provider system 104 may include one or moremachines such as server computers, desktop computers, etc.

In one implementation, the cloud provider system 104 is coupled to acloud controller 108 via the network 102. The cloud controller 108 mayreside on one or more machines (e.g., server computers, desktopcomputers, etc.) and may manage the execution of applications in thecloud 130. In some implementations, cloud controller 108 receivescommands from system controller 140. In view of these commands, thecloud controller 108 provides data (such as pre-generated images)associated with different applications to the cloud provider system 104.In some implementations, the data may be provided to the cloud provider104 and stored in an image repository 106, in an image repository (notshown) located on each host machine 110, 120, or in an image repository(not shown) located on each VM 111, 112, 121, 122. This data may be usedfor the execution of applications for a multi-tenant PaaS system managedby the system controller 140.

In one implementation, the data used for execution of applicationsincludes application images built from pre-existing applicationcomponents and source code of users managing the application. An imagerefers to data representing executables and files of the applicationused to deploy functionality for a runtime instance of the application.The image build system may be provided on components hosted by cloud130, on a server device external to the cloud 130, or even run on nodes111, 112, 121, 122. The image build system generates an applicationimage for an application by combining pre-existing ready-to-runapplication image corresponding to core functional components of theapplication (e.g., a web framework, database, etc.) with source codespecific to the application provided by the user. The resultingapplication image may be pushed to an image repository (not shown) forsubsequent use in launching instances of the application images forexecution in the PaaS system.

Upon receiving a command identifying specific data (e.g., applicationdata and files, such as application images, used to initialize anapplication on the cloud) from the system controller 140, the cloudprovider 104 retrieves the corresponding data from the image repository106, creates an instance of the image, and loads it to the host machines110, 120 for execution by nodes 111, 112, 121, 122. In addition, acommand may identify specific data to be executed on one or more of thenodes 111, 112, 121, 122. The command may be received from the cloudcontroller 108, from the system controller 140, or a user (e.g., asystem administrator) via a console computer or a client machine.

When the specific command is executed at a particular node, certaintransactions may be produced. For example, a transaction may includeoperations (e.g., two operations in which one may be rolled back if theother operation fails) to be performed within a database, such as theimage repository 106, associated with a storage device (not shown). Insome situations, the operation may change the state of the data instorage device. In such situations, a user of a client, such clients160, 170, 180 and/or administrators, may request that the system 100 toexecute a snapshot either before or after the changes to the data in thestorage device are made as a result of the operations. In this regard,the snapshot preserves a state of the data store at a particular pointin time that the snapshot is taken.

In accordance with implementations, the network architecture 100 mayinclude a plugin, such as a snapshot controller component 145, which isinstalled to provide a low impact snapshot of the storage device in thecloud infrastructure. In some implementations, the snapshot controllercomponent 145 may be feed, for example, via an interface of the systemcontroller 140, a plurality of snapshot policies that are used todetermine when to schedule the start of a snapshot command for the datastore. The functionally of the snapshot controller component 145 canexist in a fewer or greater number of modules than what is shown, withsuch modules residing at one or more processing devices of the networkarchitecture 100, which may be geographically dispersed. The snapshotcontroller component 145 may be operable in conjunction with the systemcontroller 140 from which it may receive and determine relevantinformation regarding transactions associated with the data store asdiscussed in more detail below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of system 200 for providing low impactsnapshot database protection according to an implementation of thedisclosure. In some implementations, the system 200 is PaaS system 200that allows users to launch software applications in a cloud computingenvironment, such as cloud computing environment provided in the networkarchitecture 100 described with respect to FIG. 1. In someimplementations, the PaaS system 200 includes a client layer 210, a PaaSmaster layer 220, and a storage layer 230. The client layer 210 resideson a client machine, such as a workstation of a software developer, andprovides access the components of the system 200 to a user via aninterface of the client machine. The PaaS master layer 220 mayfacilitate the creation and deployment on the cloud (via nodes 250) ofsoftware applications being developed by an end user at the client layer210. The storage layer 230 may include a storage device 235 tofacilitate the storage of information about the nodes 250 and theirapplications 257 a-b. The components of the PaaS system 200 are incommunication with each other via a network (not shown). The network mayinclude, for example, the Internet in one implementation. In otherimplementations, other networks, wired and wireless, such as anintranet, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), orbroadcast network may be used.

In one implementation, the client machines of the client layer 210 canbe a client 160, 170, 180 described with respect to FIG. 1. In oneimplementation, the client layer 210 includes a source code management(SCM) system 212. The SCM systems may include a working directory formaking changes, and a local software repository for storing the changesfor an application associated with the end user of the PaaS system 200.The packaged software application can then be “pushed” from the localSCM repository to, for example, the storage layer 230 where code of thepackaged software application may be edited by others with access, orthe application may be executed by a machine.

The client layer 210, in one implementation, also includes a set ofcommand line tools 214 that a user can utilize to create, launch, andmanage applications using a PaaS system. In one implementation, thecommand line tools 214 can be downloaded and installed on the user'sclient machine, and can be accessed via a command line interface or agraphical user interface, or some other type of interface. In oneimplementation, the command line tools 214 expose an applicationprogramming interface (“API”) of the PaaS master layer 220 and performother applications management tasks in an automated fashion using otherinterfaces, as is described in more detail further below in accordancewith some implementations.

The PaaS master layer 220, in one implementation, acts as middlewarelayer of the system 200. For example, the PaaS master layer 220 includesa PaaS master component 222 that coordinates requests from the clientlayer 210 with actions to be performed at the nodes 250. Examples of therequests can include a request to create an application, a request toperform an action (e.g., creating, removing, and/or managing acontainer) on a container, such as container 257, a request to deploysource code of an application, a request to designate a system to hostan application, etc. In some implementations, the PaaS master layer 220may be implemented on one or more machines separate from machinesimplementing each of the client layer 210, the nodes 250 and the storagelayer 230, or may be implemented together with the client layer 210,nodes 250 and/or the storage layer 230 on one or more machines, or somecombination of the above.

In one implementation, a user, using the command line tools 214 atclient layer 210, can request the creation of a new application 257 a-b,the deployment of source code of the application 257 a-b, thedesignation of a system that hosts a remote SCM repository for theapplication 257 a-b, etc. In response to receiving such a request, thePaaS master component 222 may first authenticate the user using anauthentication service 224. In one implementation, the authenticationservice 224 may comprise various authentication methods, or standardprotocols. Once the user has been authenticated and allowed access tothe PaaS system by authentication service 224, the PaaS master component222 uses a server orchestration system 226 to collect information aboutthe nodes 232 a-c. The server orchestration system 226, in oneembodiment, functions to coordinate server-client interaction betweenmultiple (sometimes a large number of) servers. In one embodiment, theservers being orchestrated are nodes 250, which are acting asapplication servers and web servers.

In implementations of the disclosure, the PaaS system 200 of FIG. 2 is amulti-tenant PaaS environment. In a multi-tenant PaaS environment, eachof the nodes 250 can run multiple applications 257 a-b that may be ownedor managed by different users (e.g., owners) and/or organizations. Assuch, a first customer's deployed applications 257 a-b may co-exist withany other customer's deployed applications on the same node that ishosting the first customer's deployed applications 257 a-b. In someimplementations, portions of an application execute on multipledifferent nodes 250.

In one implementation, each of the nodes 250 is implemented as a VM andhas an operating system 253 that can execute applications 257 a-b thatare resident on the nodes 250. A node runs an application by launchingan instance of an application image in a container 257. A container 257is a secure process space on the nodes 250 to execute functionality ofan application 257 a-b. In some implementations, a container 257 isestablished at the nodes 250 with access to certain resources of thesystem 200, including memory, storage, and security types and/or labelsto be applied to any functions executed by the container 257. In oneimplementation, the containers 257 may be established using a containerexecution environment (e.g., Kubernetes™ environment).

An application image may be generated from a combination of pre-existingready-to-run application images related to core functionality of theapplication and source code provided by a user of the application. Forexample, the pre-existing ready-to-run application images may includesupport software providing functionality (e.g., configuration templates,scripts, dependencies, etc.) used to run the application 257 a-b and/oradd a feature to the application 257 a-b.

Application image instances for an application 257 a-b launched incontainer 257 may be dispersed over more than one of the nodes. In otherimplementations, application images instances for an application 257 a-bmay run in one or more containers 257 on the same node. Furthermore, anapplication 257 a-b may use more than one application image as part ofproviding functionality for the application 257 a-b. One example of thisis a JavaEE™ application that uses a JBoss™ application server-basedapplication image with a supporting MySQL™ database provided by a MySQL™based application image. Each application image built at build systemmay map to a functional component of the application 257 a-b. As such,an application may have more than one application image associated withthe application. Built application images may be pushed applicationimage repository to the storage device 235 of storage layer 230 forstorage and accessibility for subsequent use in launching instances ofthe application images at containers 257 in nodes 257 a-b.

To maintain consistency of data in the storage layer 230, the PaaSsystem 200 includes a snapshot controller component 145. The snapshotcontroller component 145 may issue a snapshot command 240 to perform asnapshot operation on one or more data structures in the storage device235. For example, the snapshot controller 145 can issue vendor-neutralsnapshot commands that are translated by the server orchestration system226 into vendor-specific commands (e.g., commands issues by a vendor forexecuting a snapshot on a particular type of storage device produced bythat vendor). The server orchestration system 226 may then dispatch thecommands to the storage layer 230. In some implementation, the snapshotcommand 240 may be a request to create a snapshot of an applicationimage associated with the applications 257 a-b to perverse at a momentin time at least part of the storage device comprising the image.

In some implementations, the snapshot controller component 145 issuesthe snapshot command 240 using a snapshot policy 223 that may be set,for example, by a user of the system 200. The snapshot policy 223 mayindicate various conditions in which the snapshot controller component145 may issue the snapshot command 240 to ensure that the snapshot doesnot adversely affect system performance. For example, the snapshotcontroller component 145 may issue a request to the PaaS MasterComponent 222 to monitor a transaction queue (not shown). In someimplementations, the transaction queue may include a series ofidentifiers of operations that are to be executed by an application withrespect to the storage device 235. For example, the identifiers may be amemory address that identifies a location where related content forexecuting the operation may be stored. In some implementations, theidentifiers may be placed onto the transaction queue by the storagedevice 235 at the storage layer 230 and are removed from queue by thedevice 235 after they are executed. Each operation associated with theidentifiers may be a type of transaction, such as a databasetransaction, to be executed at the storage layer 230. These operationsmay indicate various changes that are to be applied to the applicationimages stored in the storage device 235.

The snapshot controller component 145, in some implementations, may betriggered to issue the snapshot command 240 when the transaction queueis in compliance with the snapshot policy 223. For example, the snapshotpolicy 223 includes a plurality of conditions defining the thresholds260 related to operations in the transaction queue that are to beexecuted on the storage device 235. For example, some of thesethresholds 260 may include, but not limited to, a depth threshold thatrepresents a determined number in which operations in the transactionqueue to be executed should be below for a snapshot to be executed, atransaction threshold that represents a determined number in which thenumber of transactions executed since the last snapshot was taken shouldbe below for a snapshot to be executed, and a priority thresholdindicating that the priority status of operations in the transactionqueue should be below a determined level. In some implementations, thepriority level of the operations 345 may be determined based on variousfactors, such as whether the user associated with the operation hascertain privileges or whether the user paid a premium so that theiroperations get prioritized, etc.

In some implementations, the thresholds 260 may be adjusted, forexample, by a user via an interface of the PaaS Master Layer 220. Inalternative implementations, the thresholds 260 may adjusted by thesystem 200 based on an analysis of system performance levels related tocurrent settings of the thresholds 260 or current available resourcesfor executing a snapshot command. For example, the system 200 mayincrease or decrease a particular threshold, if it is detected that thecurrent thresholds 260 are causing adverse effect in the systemperformance when a snapshot is executed.

If none of the thresholds 260 are met, then the transaction queue isconsidered in compliance with the snapshot policy 223, thus the snapshotcontroller component 145 may safely issue the snapshot command 240. Ifone or more of these thresholds 260 are met or exceeded, the snapshotcontroller component 145 may in response delay or reschedule thesnapshot until the transaction queue is in compliance with the snapshotpolicy 223. When the snapshot controller component 145 determines thatthe snapshot command 240 can be issued based on the snapshot policy 223,a point-in-time snapshot comprising changes made to the applicationimage since the last time a snapshot was taken is stored in the storagedevice 235. These snapshots can then be retrieved by the client layer210, PaaS master layer 220 and/or nodes 250 of the system 200 fortesting, rollback and other purposes related to the applications 257a-b.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an apparatus 300 including a memory 310 forproviding low impact snapshot database protection according to animplementation of the disclosure. The apparatus 300 may be the same orsimilar to a computing device within the network architecture 100 ofFIG. 1 or the system 200 of FIG. 2. Apparatus 300 may include componentsand modules for issuing snapshot commands based on snapshot policy 223.In some implementations, the apparatus 200 may include a data store 310(which may be compared to the storage device 235 of FIG. 2) and aprocessing device 320 coupled to the data store 310. In someimplementations, the processing device 320 may execute instructions forcarrying out the operations of the modules as discussed herein. Asshown, these modules may include a transaction identifier module 330, aqueue monitor module 340, a snapshot policy evaluation module 350, and apoint-in-time snapshot generator 360 to issue commands to take snapshotsof data (e.g., application images) stored in data store 310.

Data store 310 may include any non-persistent data storage (e.g.,memory), persistent data storage (e.g., flash storage, hard drive,tape), other medium, or combination thereof that is capable of storinginstructions for carrying out the operations of the components andmodule discussed herein. In some implementations, the data store 210 maystore application images 315 and relevant information associated withthose images. In some implementations, the application images 315 in thedata store 310 may be updated. For example, the application images 315may be changed related to a development or use of a correspondingapplication being executed by the processing device 320.

The transaction identifier module 330 can identify a plurality oftransactions 335 associated with the date store 310. Each of thetransactions 335 may include an operation 345 to be executed in the datestore 310. For example, the transactions 335 may be databasetransactions associated with the data store 310 that may update anapplication image 315 stored therein. The application image 315 refersto data representing an application used to deploy functionality for aruntime instance of the application. In some implementations, changes tothe application image 315 may be pushed to the data store 310 via thetransactions 335.

The queue monitor 340 can monitor a transaction queue 341 that storesthe operation identifiers 325 of the operations 345 for execution by theapplication image 315 in the date store 310. For example, thetransaction queue 341 may be a data structure (e.g., an array, table,etc.) that can store the operation identifiers 325 in a particular orderfor execution. In some implementations, the queue monitor 340 may issuea request to a service, such as the PaaS Master Component 222 of FIG. 2,to monitor the transaction queue 341. The service, in oneimplementation, provides services for the integration and deployment ofapplications as well as the monitoring of application flows and relateddata to the data store 310. The queue monitor 340 can identify variousinformation regarding the transaction queue 341, such as a transactionqueue depth corresponding to a number of the operations 345 in thetransaction queue 341 to be executed by the application image 315, anamount of executed operations from the transaction queue 341 subsequentto a previous point-in-time snapshot taken of the application image 315,and a priority status of the operations in the transaction queue 341.

The snapshot policy evaluation module 350 can determine whether themonitored transaction queue 341 is in compliance with a snapshot policy223. If it is determined that the transaction queue 341 is in compliancewith the snapshot policy 223, the snapshot determination module 350 mayindicate to the snapshot generator 360 that a snapshot of the storagedevice 310 can be executed. In some implementations, the compliance ofthe transaction queue 341 may be determined based on one or morethresholds associated with the snapshot policy 223 have been exceeded.For example, the snapshot policy 223 may include thresholds that may beused to indicate the best time to take a snapshot of the data store 310while minimalizing any system impact.

In one example, the snapshot policy evaluation module 350 may compare anumber of operations 335 comprised by the transaction queue 341 with adetermined depth threshold level associated with the snapshot policy223. If the transaction queue depth meets the depth threshold level, thesnapshot determination module 350 may generate a request that is sent tothe snapshot generator 360 to halt, delay or reschedule execution of thesnapshot command. If the transaction queue depth is below the determineddepth threshold level associated with the snapshot policy 223, thesnapshot command may be scheduled to execute.

In another example, the snapshot policy evaluation module 350 maycompare a number of executed operations since the last snapshot asidentified by queue monitor 340 to a transaction threshold levelassociated with the snapshot policy 223. If it is determined that thetransaction threshold level is met, the snapshot determination module350 may generate a request that is sent to the snapshot generator 360 tohalt, delay or reschedule execution of the snapshot command. Otherwise,the snapshot determination module 350 may indicate to the snapshotgenerator 360 that a snapshot of the storage device 310 can be executed.

In yet another example, the snapshot policy evaluation module 350 maycompare a priority status of at least one operation in the transactionqueue 341 as identified by queue monitor 340 to a status threshold levelassociated with the snapshot policy 223. For example, the snapshotdetermination module 350 determines whether there are any high priorityoperations 345 in the transaction queue 341. In some implementations,the priority status of an operation may be determined based on, forexample, system settings, whether the user associated with the operationhas certain privileges or whether the user paid a premium so that theiroperations get prioritized. If the status threshold level is met, thesnapshot determination module 350 may generate a request that is sent tothe snapshot generator 360 to generate the point-in-time snapshotfollowing an execution of the at least one operation.

The snapshot generator 360 can generate a point-in-time snapshot of atleast part of the data store 310 comprising state information 365 forthe application image 315. For example, the snapshot generator 360 canissue a snapshot command to take a snapshot of the data store 310 inresponse to receiving an indication from the snapshot determinationmodule 350 that the transaction queue 341 is in compliance with asnapshot policy 223. In some implementations, the state information 365may include information indicating changes made to the application image315 as a result of at least a portion of the operations 345 beingexecuted in the data store 310. For example, the snapshot generator 360may flushes operations from the transaction queue 341 into the datastore 310 before the snapshot is executed.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of one implementation of a method 400 inaccordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. In oneimplementation, the processing device 320 of FIG. 3 may perform method400 to provide low impact snapshot database protection. The method 400may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware(circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as is run on ageneral purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), or acombination of both. Alternatively, in some other implementations, oneor more processors of the computer device executing the method mayperform routines, subroutines, or operations may perform method 400 andeach of its individual functions. In certain implementations, a singleprocessing thread may perform method 400. Alternatively, two or moreprocessing threads with each thread executing one or more individualfunctions, routines, subroutines, or operations may perform method 400.It should be noted that blocks of method 400 depicted in FIG. 4 can beperformed simultaneously or in a different order than that depicted.

Method 400 being in block 410 where a transaction queue comprising aplurality of transactions associated with a storage device is monitored.Each of the transactions comprising an operation to be executed by anapplication in the storage device. It is determined that the transactionqueue is in compliance with a snapshot policy associated with thestorage device in block 420 in view of the monitoring. In block 430, arequest to generate a point-in-time snapshot of at least part of thestorage device comprising state information for the application isprovided in view of the determining.

FIG. 5 depicts a flow diagram of one implementation of another method500 in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. In oneimplementation, the processing device 320 of FIG. 3 may perform method500 to provide low impact snapshot database protection. The method 500may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware(circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as is run on ageneral purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), or acombination of both. Alternatively, in some other implementations, oneor more processors of the computer device executing the method mayperform routines, subroutines, or operations may perform method 500 andeach of its individual functions. In certain implementations, a singleprocessing thread may perform method 500. Alternatively, two or moreprocessing threads with each thread executing one or more individualfunctions, routines, subroutines, or operations may perform method 500.It should be noted that blocks of method 500 depicted in FIG. 5 can beperformed simultaneously or in a different order than that depicted.

Method 500 being in block 510 where a transaction queue comprising aplurality of transactions associated with a storage device isidentified. Each of the transactions comprising an operation to beexecuted by an application in the storage device. In block 520, thetransaction queue is evaluated to determine whether it is in compliancewith a snapshot policy associated with the storage device. A schedulefor generating a point-in-time snapshot of the application is providedin block 530 in view evaluating the snapshot policy. In block 540, thepoint-in-time snapshot is generated for at least part of the storagedevice comprising state information of the application in view of theschedule.

FIG. 6 depicts a block diagram of a computer system operating inaccordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. In variousillustrative examples, computer system 600 may correspond to aprocessing device within system 100, system 200, or system 300 of FIG.1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 respectively. The computer system may be includedwithin a data center that supports virtualization. Virtualization withina data center results in a physical system being virtualized usingvirtual machines to consolidate the data center infrastructure andincrease operational efficiencies.

A virtual machine (VM) may be a program-based emulation of computerhardware. For example, the VM may operate based on computer architectureand functions of computer hardware resources associated with hard disksor other such memory. The VM may emulate a physical computingenvironment, but requests for a hard disk or memory may be managed by avirtualization layer of a host machine to translate these requests tothe underlying physical computing hardware resources. This type ofvirtualization results in multiple VMs sharing physical resources.

In certain implementations, computer system 600 may be connected (e.g.,via a network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), an intranet, anextranet, or the Internet) to other computer systems. Computer system600 may operate in the capacity of a server or a client computer in aclient-server environment, or as a peer computer in a peer-to-peer ordistributed network environment. Computer system 600 may be provided bya personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, aserver, a network router, switch or bridge, or any device capable ofexecuting a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that device. Further, the term “computer” shallinclude any collection of computers that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more ofthe methods described herein for live storage domain decommissioning.

In a further aspect, the computer system 600 may include a processingdevice 602, a volatile memory 604 (e.g., random access memory (RAM)), anon-volatile memory 606 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM) orelectrically-erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM)), and a data storagedevice 616, which may communicate with each other via a bus 608.

Processing device 602 may be provided by one or more processors such asa general purpose processor (such as, for example, a complex instructionset computing (CISC) microprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing(RISC) microprocessor, a very long instruction word (VLIW)microprocessor, a microprocessor implementing other types of instructionsets, or a microprocessor implementing a combination of types ofinstruction sets) or a specialized processor (such as, for example, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), or a networkprocessor).

Computer system 600 may further include a network interface device 622.Computer system 600 also may include a video display unit 610 (e.g., anLCD), an alphanumeric input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursorcontrol device 614 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generation device 620.

Data storage device 616 may include a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium 624 on which may store instructions 626 encoding any oneor more of the methods or functions described herein, includinginstructions encoding the snapshot controller component 145 of FIG. 1for implementing method 400 of FIG. 4 or method 500 of FIG. 5 for lowimpact snapshot database protection in a micro-service environment.

Instructions 626 may also reside, completely or partially, withinvolatile memory 604 and/or within processing device 602 during executionthereof by computer system 600, hence, volatile memory 604 andprocessing device 602 may also constitute machine-readable storagemedia.

While non-transitory computer-readable storage medium 624 is shown inthe illustrative examples as a single medium, the term“computer-readable storage medium” shall include a single medium ormultiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/orassociated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets ofexecutable instructions. The term “computer-readable storage medium”shall also include any tangible medium that is capable of storing orencoding a set of instructions for execution by a computer that causethe computer to perform any one or more of the methods described herein.The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall include, but not belimited to, solid-state memories, optical media, and magnetic media.

The methods, components, and features described herein may beimplemented by discrete hardware components or may be integrated in thefunctionality of other hardware components such as ASICS, FPGAs, DSPs orsimilar devices. In addition, the methods, components, and features maybe implemented by firmware modules or functional circuitry withinhardware devices. Further, the methods, components, and features may beimplemented in any combination of hardware devices and computer programcomponents, or in computer programs.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, terms such as “receiving,”“determining,” “monitoring,” “comparing,” “selecting,” “identifying,”“generating” or the like, refer to actions and processes performed orimplemented by computer systems that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computersystem registers and memories into other data similarly represented asphysical quantities within the computer system memories or registers orother such information storage, transmission or display devices. Also,the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” etc. as used herein aremeant as labels to distinguish among different elements and may not havean ordinal meaning according to their numerical designation.

Examples described herein also relate to an apparatus for performing themethods described herein. This apparatus may be specially constructedfor performing the methods described herein, or it may comprise ageneral purpose computer system selectively programmed by a computerprogram stored in the computer system. Such a computer program may bestored in a computer-readable tangible storage medium.

The methods and illustrative examples described herein are notinherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus.Various general purpose systems may be used in accordance with theteachings described herein, or it may prove convenient to construct morespecialized apparatus to perform method 300 and/or each of itsindividual functions, routines, subroutines, or operations. Examples ofthe structure for a variety of these systems are set forth in thedescription above.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. Many other implementation exampleswill be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading andunderstanding the above description. Although the disclosure describesspecific examples, it will be recognized that the systems and methods ofthe disclosure are not limited to the examples described herein, but maybe practiced with modifications within the scope of the appended claims.Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of thedisclosure should, therefore, be determined with reference to theappended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which suchclaims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a memory to storeapplication data; and a processing device coupled to the memory to:identify a plurality of transactions within a cloud computingenvironment, each of the transactions comprising an operation associatedwith a storage device of the cloud computing environment; monitor atransaction queue storing identifiers of operations to be performed byan application with respect to the storage device; determine-whether thetransaction queue is in compliance with a snapshot policy associatedwith the storage device, wherein the snapshot policy indicates apriority level that the operations of the transaction queue are tosatisfy, and wherein the priority level of the snapshot policy isconfigured to be adjusted in view of current available resources forexecuting a snapshot command; compare a priority status of at least oneoperation comprised by the transaction queue with a status thresholdlevel associated with the snapshot policy; and responsive to determiningthat the transaction queue is in compliance with the snapshot policy andresponsive to determining that the priority status of at least oneoperation meets the status threshold level, execute, subsequent to anexecution of the at least one operation, the snapshot command togenerate a point-in-time snapshot of at least a portion of the storagedevice, the point-in-time snapshot comprising state informationcorresponding to the application.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein todetermine whether the transaction queue is in compliance with thesnapshot policy the processing device is further to compare a number ofoperations comprised by the transaction queue with a threshold level. 3.The system of claim 2, wherein the processing device is further to,responsive to determining that the number of operations comprised by thetransaction queue is below the threshold level, execute the snapshotcommand to generate the point-in-time snapshot.
 4. The system of claim1, wherein to determine whether the transaction queue is in compliancewith the snapshot policy, the processing device is further to: determinea number of operations comprised by the transaction queue that areexecuted following a previous point-in-time snapshot associated with theapplication; and compare the number of executed operations with atransaction threshold level associated with the snapshot policy.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4, wherein the processing device is further to,responsive to determining that the number of executed operations meetsthe transaction threshold level, execute the snapshot command togenerate the point-in-time snapshot.
 6. A method comprising:identifying, by a processing device, a plurality of transactions withina cloud computing environment, each of the transactions comprising anoperation associated with a storage device of the cloud computingenvironment; monitoring, by the processing device, a transaction queuecomprising the plurality of transactions associated with the storagedevice, each of the transactions comprising an operation to be executedby an application in the storage device; determining, by the processingdevice, whether the transaction queue is in compliance with a snapshotpolicy associated with the storage device in view of the monitoring,wherein the snapshot policy indicates a priority level that theoperations of the transaction queue are to satisfy, and wherein thepriority level of the snapshot policy is configured to be adjusted inview of current available resources for executing a snapshot command;comparing a priority status of at least one operation comprised by thetransaction queue with a status threshold level associated with thesnapshot policy; and responsive to determining that the transactionqueue is in compliance with the snapshot policy and responsive todetermining that the priority status of at least one operation meets thestatus threshold level, providing, by the processing device subsequentto an execution of the at least one operation, a request to generate apoint-in-time snapshot of at least a portion of the storage device, thepoint-in-time snapshot comprising state information corresponding to theapplication in view of the determining.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein determining whether the transaction queue is in compliance withthe snapshot policy further comprises comparing a number of operationscomprised by the transaction queue with a threshold level.
 8. The methodof claim 7, further comprising, responsive to determining that thenumber of operations comprised by the transaction queue is below thethreshold level, providing the request to generate the point-in-timesnapshot.
 9. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whether thetransaction queue is in compliance with the snapshot policy furthercomprises: determining a number of operations comprised by thetransaction queue that are execute following a previous point-in-timesnapshot associated with the application; and comparing the number ofexecuted operations with a transaction threshold level associated withthe snapshot policy.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising,responsive to determining that the number of executed operations meetsthe transaction threshold level, providing the request to generate thepoint-in-time snapshot.
 11. A non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium comprising instructions that when executed, by a processingdevice, cause the processing device to: identify, by the processingdevice, a transaction queue comprising a plurality of transactionsassociated with a storage device in a cloud computing environment, eachof the transactions comprising an operation to be executed by anapplication in the storage device, the transaction queue storingidentifiers of operations performed by the application; evaluate whetherthe transaction queue is in compliance with a snapshot policy associatedwith the storage device, wherein the snapshot policy indicates apriority level that the operations of the transaction queue are tosatisfy, and wherein the priority level of the snapshot policy isconfigured to be adjusted in view of current available resources forexecuting a snapshot command; provide, in view of the transaction queuebeing in compliance with the snapshot policy, a schedule for executing asnapshot command to generate a point-in-time snapshot associated withthe application; compare a priority status of at least one operationcomprised by the transaction queue with a status threshold levelassociated with the snapshot policy; and responsive to determining thatthe priority status of the at least one operation meets the statusthreshold level, execute, in view of the schedule and subsequent to anexecution of the at least one operation, the snapshot command togenerate the point-in-time snapshot for at least a portion of thestorage device, the point-in-time snapshot comprising state informationcorresponding to the application.
 12. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein to evaluatewhether the transaction queue is in compliance with the snapshot policy,the processing device further to compare a number of operationscomprised by the transaction queue with a threshold level.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein theprocessing device further to, responsive to determining that the numberof operations comprised by the transaction queue is below the thresholdlevel, execute the snapshot command to generate the point-in-timesnapshot.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 11, wherein to evaluate, the processing device further to:determine a number of operations comprised by the transaction queue thatare executed following a previous point-in-time snapshot associated withthe application; and compare the number of executed operations with atransaction threshold level associated with the snapshot policy.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein theprocessing device further to, responsive to determining that the numberof executed operations meets the transaction threshold level, executethe snapshot command to generate the point-in-time snapshot.